Moogfest 2020 Has Been Cancelled

Moogfest 2020 has been cancelled due to “logistical reasons,” according to statement obtained by the outlet IndyWeek earlier this week. The electronic music festival was originally scheduled to take place acorss various venues in downtown Durham, North Carolina from April 16-19, where it had taken place since 2016 after relocating from Asheville, North Carolina.

“As an organization, our purpose is to create deeply meaningful experiences and relationships in order to continually enrich our creative community,” said the statement. “This intermission will be used to focus on the future of Moogfest and to investigate new ways of exploring the future of music, art, and technology.”

This year’s Moogfest lineup hosted numerous acts such as The Field, Stephan Bodzin, Mor Elian A Place To Bury Strangers, GAS and Kimbra. Other high profile artists who have performed at the festival include the influential kraut rock group Kraftwerk, pioneering ambient artist Brian Eno, trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack and Moby.

While the festival originally took place in New York, it moved to North Carolina, the home state of music pioneer Robert “Bob” Moog, the inventor of the MOOG Synthesizer, which the festival takes its name after. Unlike many other electronic based music festivals such as Ultra Music Festival, the Electric Daisy Carnival and Electric Forest, Moogfest specialized in more experimental genres, and user interactions with a special focus on technological advancements for music production.

The festival received some controversy however, when it unveiled a phase-one line-up of exclusively female and transgender artists back in 2017. This eventually caused Caroline Polachek to drop out of the festival, who stated in a tweet “Furious to be (without approval) on an all-female & non-gender-binary announcement list for @Moogfest. Gender is not a genre. I don’t need a sympathy pedestal, esp from a male curator. Take my name off this list and put me in the pit with the boys.”